The Light Fantastic

From the sublime to the ridiculous, and every star-date in-between, nine authors follow in the footsteps of great speculative fiction humorists such as Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett in this collection of ten wild and weird tales sure to put a smile on your face. A beautiful multiverse criminal, a heartbroken pizza baron, and a dog named Pepperoni. All in a day's work in the life of government agent Marlon Phillips in "Farewell, My Lovely Slip-Slider" (Parker Francis). When Kensington City's corn crops disappear and toasters turn hostile, can the mayor, The Grasshopper, hop high enough to save his city in the comic-book superhero romp, "The Reddies are Coming! The Reddies are Coming!" (Daco Auffenorde)? During the Cuban missile crisis, the arrival of UFOs gives a ten-year-old boy the chance to get even with the class bully in "Andromeda Calling". And in "SOD's Law", a salvager of space junk hopes to profit from a rare artifact but the laws of the universe have something else in store (Charles A Cornell). In "Backlash/Frontlash\Whiplash" (Bria Burton), a software developer finds the artificial intelligence she created doesn't come with the proverbial off switch. And the world may be ending tomorrow, but the PTA bake sale waits for no one in "Baking Cookies for the End of the World" (Kristin Durfee). "The Thirteenth Floor" holds bickering ghosts trapped on the secret floor of a 1920's hotel. Can their latest victim escape (Scott Michael Powers)? Mary Alice likes to draw blood—from people and in a comic strip. A misunderstanding about human anatomy gets her into trouble as she tries to collect hundreds of humans with a specific genome for interplanetary transport in "Malice" (Veronica H. Hart). In "Empty Suit", the antics of an invisible man upends the world of big business (Ken Pelham). And finally, two quirky aliens wreak havoc on Earth in their attempt to reinstate the TV comedy, ALF, in "Laser Hamsters" (John Hope).